Other forms: esplanades
An esplanade is a long open level walk beside water. Stroll along the esplanade, the seafront esplanade, the esplanade lights.
It is the grander word for a promenade, and every British seaside town of any ambition built one. The original military sense was the flat open ground kept clear in front of a fortress, so that nothing could approach unseen.
1nounesplanadeA long open level walk beside water.
“In the evening, families strolled along the esplanade and watched the sun set over the sea.”
esplanade is a walkway.
French esplanade comes from a word meaning to level, from Latin explanare, to flatten out.
Latin
explānāre
Spanish
esplanada
French
esplanade — clear, level space
English, today
esplanade
Built from
1590s, from French esplanade (“clear, level space”), from either Spanish esplanada (explanada), form of esplanar (“to flatten, to make level”) or Italian spianata, form of spianare (of the same meaning), both from Latin explānāre, from which English explain; see also plain (“level area, to flatten”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA